


Darcy Lewis - Anchor of the Universe

by NekoNomi



Series: The Infinite Loops [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Brian Banner's A+ Parenting, Character Death, Darcy is a Troll, Fluff and Crack, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, No-one here is sane, Odin's A+ Parenting, Spoilers, The Author Regrets Nothing, They get better though, Trolling Fury is everyone's favourite pastime, bamf!darcy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-20 23:45:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1530182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoNomi/pseuds/NekoNomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's like Deja-vu" She says "Only it really has happened before"</p><p>When the multiverse suffers a reality crash, the 'Powers That Be' select Darcy Lewis to act as the anchor point for reality as they work to fix what went wrong.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginings

**Author's Note:**

> For those unfamiliar with the concept involved in the creation of this story, it is, essentially, as follows:
> 
> When the guiding force behind the universe suffers a system crash, the powers that be set it into a type of 'safe mode'. A single person (in this case Darcy Lewis) is selected to act as an anchor point for this universe, consistently looping back in time to the start of the series (In this case, the beginning of Thor) when they either die, or a particular time afterwards is reached. Of course things can, and do, go wrong and loops occasionally vary greatly from their 'prime' or canon events, and occasionally the anchor will find themselves looping back further than they usually do, or even into another universe entirely. Eventually others begin to loop as well.
> 
> The fic itself is going to be a series of short ficlets, one shots, drabbled and similar, following Darcy's adventures though the time loops. Updates will be irregular, as stories will be written as the inspiration strikes me.

1.01 - Loops

The alarm went off and Darcy groaned, rolling over in bed and hitting her phone to make it stop. Lifting her head, she glanced at the date on her clock, groaned again and buried her face in her pillow. Great, another reset. Stupid alien invasions and falling buildings. Things had just been getting good too.

Keeping her face buried in her pillow, Darcy let her mind drift, assimilating the memories of this loop. Mostly she had gone through the exact same events over and over and over again, but every now and then something strange came up. Like the time 'Tony' Stark was short for Antonia rather than Anthony. That had been a fun loop. This time though seemed like another base-line loop, with her waking the day before Thor's big appearance on earth.

Hearing a crash from outside, Darcy sighed and sat up. Time to start Jane-wrangling again.

\---------------  
1.02 - Loki

Under other circumstances, Darcy rather thought she and Loki might have been friends. Unfortunately, that wasn't really possible. She'd tried, once or twice, but the problem was that every time she re-set, all the progress she had made towards that goal was lost. After a while, it got incredibly frustrating.

There was something different this time though. Something about the way Loki held himself that didn't seem quite right, a lack of venom in his voice which she was sure had been there before. The way his eyes tracked those around him. This time around, Darcy had ditched her degree (Seriously, she'd finished that thing a dozen times now, she knew all the answers by rote at this point) and become an agent of SHIELD. Then she'd carefully worked her way up the ladder of importance until she'd managed to secure herself helicarrier duty just prior to the upcoming Battle of New York.

"Sooooo.... Ever had this feeling like deja-vu only it's gone on for, like, way longer?" Darcy asked Loki as she stood guard over the 'hulk-tank', as she had taken to calling the massive clear containment unit. "Indeed I have, Miss Lewis" If the dry wit and exhausted sarcasm hadn't been enough of a clue, she had never been introduced to him in this loop, and SHIELD agents didn't wear name badges.

At first Darcy just grinned, and then she started to laugh. Once she started laughing, she found herself unable to stop. Loki got to his feet in startled concern, reaching out and touching the glass, and Darcy's hand reached out and touched the glass right over that same point. "How long?" She managed to ask, knowing that her sudden change would have been noted, and that soon someone would come to take her away. "A few times" Loki replied "Just enough to know that this really is happening". 

"Yup" Darcy said, popping the 'p'. "It's happening." She glanced at the door, knowing there wasn't much time left "I'll see if I can convince Thor to spring you from the cell later". "Is he?" Loki asked. "Nope" Darcy replied "You're the first I've met whose stuck like me"

"Miss Lewis? If you could come this way please" Two blank faced agents appeared in the doorway, both with their guns visible, a warning that they would not be taking 'no' for an answer. "Catch yah later Loki" Darcy waved at him cheerily as she exited the building, taking a perverse kind of joy in making the two agents exchange puzzled looks.

\---------------  
1.03 - Goddess

"Well, this is new" Darcy said as she looked down at her hand. Her gloved and armored hand, holding a very familiar warhammer. As the loop memories assimilated themselves, Darcy grinned. Apparently she was Darcy Odinsdotter, Goddess of storms and strength. Best friends with the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, along with her brother, the sorcerer Loki. She glanced to her side, seeing Loki beside her. He looked back with a wicked little grin. An answering grin curved her lips, a wicked smirk as her eyes danced with mischief. Clearly Loki was Awake. Plans were already forming in the woman's mind about what she was going to do with this unprecedented opportunity. "This is going to be fun" she whispered under her breath.

\---------------  
1.04 - Contract

"Miss Foster, I'm Agent Coulson of SHIELD." Darcy snickered as she watched Phil invade the lab and steal Jane's things. No matter what the man might say about it, Darcy still considered it stealing. At least now, with the forewarning of the loops, she managed to hide her iPod away where even SHIELD's rather thorough lackeys couldn't find it. Re-downloading all those songs each time had gotten tedious really quickly. Now she just needed to do something about the fact that the man, who she was knew was actually a pretty decent guy when he wasn't stealing people's stuff, was about to do just that.

"Actually, sir, you don't need to do that" Darcy piped up as the lackeys started moving everything towards the van. Coulson turned to her, lifting an eyebrow without a word. "Here" Striding forward, Darcy handed a sheaf of papers to the man. "It's a contract" She explained cheerfully as the agent looked over the papers while Jane and Erik stared at her, wide eyed and slack-jawed. "Specifically stating that Jane will be allowed to continue her research, with SHIELD funding, in exchange for SHIELD having first dibs on any practical applications of what she learns with regards to the einstein rosen bridge" That loop she had spent studying contract law had been time well used, not to mention she had spent a long time studying the contract SHIELD usually gave Jane at the end of the whole Thor incident.

"Well, this all looks to be in order" Coulson stated, voice dry. "How did you know we were coming Miss Lewis?" He asked. Darcy grinned. "Oh, I'm just crazy prepared" She said, holding out a pen for him to sign the documents, knowing that he had the authority to make a deal such as the one outlined in the contract she had handed him. _One problem down. Oh so many more to go_ She thought to herself as she started on the next step of her plan.


	2. Continuations

2.01 - Jane

Once it had happened, Darcy realised that it was likely inevitable that eventually Jane would join her in this constant looping through time. It wasn't exactly hard to tell when Jane had started looping. For anyone else walking into the lab that first morning after a re-set, things would have looked the same as always. For Darcy, so intimately familiar now with the equations and numbers on those boards, knew the moment she looked at them that the scribbled writing was not the same scribbled writing that had been there the night before. Of course, this was helped by the way Jane was currently sloppily erasing the one remaining board and hastily writing new equations on it.

Ducking into the kitchen, Darcy hurriedly pulled out some pop-tarts and made cups of coffee. No way was she dealing with explaining this to Jane without coffee. It wasn't that she didn't expect Jane to understand what was going on, so much as needing fortification against the inevitable onslaught of technical terms which were certain to be flying through the air once Jane started talking.

Once she had suitable armed herself, Darcy took a deep breath and left the kitchen, calling out "Jane! We need to talk!" It was a mark of just how much social progress Jane made over the course of a loop, that she actually looked up and stopped what she was doing when Darcy called. "Darcy..." She said plaintively "Why are we in New Mexico?". As terribly tempting as it was to troll her and start with an explanation of life, the universe and Jane's own research, Darcy just smiled.

"It all starts with today..." She began.

\---------------  
2.02 - Jewels

When Darcy Awoke, she was in somewhere far different to usual. As she waited for the loop memories to hit, she looked herself over. She judged herself to be about five, with all the childish figure which came with that age. She was in a cold dark stone room with an altar before her. Of course, being only five, when the loop memories finally did hit, there weren't really many of them. There were enough though to let her know what she was supposed to be doing right now, and to give her a rough idea of exactly where she was. Deciding to go with the flow for now and work out the exact details later, Darcy settled herself back down before the altar, relaxing her body and settling into a deep meditative state.

Behind her closed eyelids, colours seemed to pulse around her. Nothingness became white, which tinged to yellow, which slowly darkened and became striped with brown before fading into a pleasing rose colour. The rose lingered a moment before slowly becoming a light blue and then fading like a sunset into a dusky purple. The colours lightened again, becoming a glittering white which then slowly darkened before slipping into a beautiful shade of green. That green colour stayed, and Darcy felt everything within her resonate with that green, as though the colour was sinking into her.

A touch startled her out of her meditations. She whirled around, but there was no-one there. On the altar however were a pair of uncut green jewels.

\---

Though she was only a Witch, Darcy's birthright green jewel had made her the darkest power within the little hamlet of her birth. It had been enough to bring her to the attention of the elderly queen whose rule covered her village, and though she had no particular caste leanings, she had learned a great deal of craft under the eyes of the old woman whose offering sapphire had been the only local jewel darker than Darcy's birthright.

Darcy was just about old enough to be considering making her own offering when the news came through out the province that the Queen of New York was stepping down in favour of a younger and stronger queen. The Lady Potts was a powerful queen, birthright Opal descended to a pure Red. She was surrounded by powerful men, all of whose names Darcy recognised. As soon as she heard the announcement, Darcy had made plans to find her way to that court. Even if Pepper wasn't awake, she just had to see what the woman looked like as a Ruling Queen.

\---

As it turned out, Pepper was Awake, though neither Tony, who was a red jewelled warlord prince and her consort, or Steve, a grey jewelled warlord prince and her master of the guard, were. Still, even with those two not awake, it hadn't been too difficult to work her way into the court. It helped that Coulson apparently was Awake and was quite happy to pull her into the role of his underling. Not she minded much. She often ended up doing exactly that in their own universe, especially on the baseline loops. From there she had found Jane, a summer-sky to green priestess with an obsession for learning the underlying principles of the craft, and gotten a heading for finding Thor and Loki, in the form of Jane's currently absent Eyrian boyfriend.

\---

Once again Darcy found herself kneeling before an altar in a cold stone room. It was the night of her Offering to the Darkness, when she would come into her adult power in this world. Though it was supposed to be a rather sacred type of event, Darcy had heard the betting happening between the other members of the court as to what jewel she would carry out of this room with her. As she knelt and started her slow breathing, she thought on that fact. She was already a dark jewel, with only a few in the court wearing darker jewels. She had never worked out if they were living pre- or post- Witchstorm, but either way, darker jewels were not something which were easily found. The fact that so many had congregated to the side of a province queen often made people look at Pepper and wonder if she would be making a shot for taking over as Territory Queen when the current holder of the title stepped down.

She lingered over the bets she'd heard placed by her friends, nearly all wagering on her coming out with something strong. It had felt good, to hear them good naturedly squabbling over such things. It wasn't often in their baseline loop that they got to simply relax and be. While there were problems here, it was nothing on the level of the super-villains they had to face in their home reality.

Gradually she allowed the thoughts to slip away. She slowly sank down into the green, the familiar feel of her power wrapping around her, warming her from the inside out. Now came the uncomfortable bit. This level of power was familiar and strong, but it was not her full strength. Something deeper beckoned to her, calling forth in a siren song of possibilities. Slowly she faded away from from her birthright strength, the colours around her sliding into the dark blues of a sapphire, and then curling into the fiery tones of a red. In an aching slowness, everything became grey. It was not a cold grey, but a warm and inviting grey, a grey which filled her with the same sense of fierce joyous existence as her green did. This was it. This was where she was meant to be.

It seemed like forever that she allowed herself to drift within the grey, letting the colour sink into her very being and power flow through her in a way that her beloved green had not. When finally she forced herself to open her eyes, two dark grey jewels waited for her upon the altar.

\---------------  
2.03 - Desolation

Kicking her heels against the concrete wall as she sat with her legs over the side of the roof of the one remaining structurally stable building in town, Darcy looked out over the broken landscape. There was nothing but destruction for as far as the eye could see. "So, this is what happens when Thor looses" She said, not looking at the black suited man beside her. "Apparently so" Phil replied in the dry tone of which he was a master.

It seemed that this loop around, Thor had not learned his lessons to the degree demanded by Odin. Or Mjolnir. She never had been too certain if it had been the old man or the semi-sentient weapon which was in charge of determining Thor's level of worthiness of his own power. Either way, when he had stepped out to face the destroyer alone, rather than the last minute save that usually happened, he had been struck down by the energy blast, and hadn't gotten up again. It seemed that Thor's death had been the final straw which snapped what ever tenuous hold upon reality which Loki might have had remaining. The Destroyer went on an indiscriminate rampage, decimating all in it's path.

With sigh, Darcy stood up. Time to see if she could still do this.

Holding out her hand, she reached out with those scraps of Asgardian magic which had remained after that loop she had spent as Thor. 

There was a crack of sound as Mjolnir responded to the magical calling. Darcy staggered a little under the weight of the warhammer, forgetting that she lacked the strength her asgardian self had possessed. A flare of magic filled her and the weight of the weapon eased, whilst a once familiar armour settled itself around her. The first thing she did when she could see again was to ditch the cape, a voice which sounded a great deal like Edna Mode shouting 'No Capes!' in the back of her mind.

Idly she swung Mjolnir, getting a feel for the heft of the weapon when was in her regular body, or at east something approaching her regular body given she seemed to have been given a nice magical boost. "Alright then. Time to show that Destroyer a thing or two about destruction" Whirling the hammer, she took to the air, waving down at a slightly stunned looking Phil. "Catch yah later Son of Coul"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2.02 - Crossover with Anne Bishop's Black Jewels novels. A fairly future loop where in a number of characters are Awake.  
> 2.03 - Awake: Darcy, Phil. Edna Mode is from 'The Incredibles'


	3. Influences

3.01 - Intern  
  
Waking from a loop reset to find herself on Asgard had happened a few times to Darcy. There had even been that one memorable loop where she had woken up to find herself in Thor's place. More often though she was set in a minor role somewhere and took the chance to either learn what she could of Asgard's strange blend of magic and science, or simply took a chance to have a vacation in a wonderfully unusual place.  
  
This time though, it seemed that she was going to be having an adventure in Asgard, whether she wanted to or not. Because, unless she was completely missing her guess, she was replacing Loki this time around. Which, since Thor had yet to join the ranks of those who were aware of the time loops, meant she was stuck dealing with the egotistical arrogant, shameless, ignorant, idiotic, jerk that the warrior was before his exile to earth.  
  
According to her loop-memories, today was to be the day of Thor's coronation. Pre-loop her had been following the usual Loki plan and the invasion of Odin's vaults was already set up. There wasn't really anything she could think of that she could use to stop that happening, not so close to the event, so she supposed she would just have to let these early events play out as they would. During their talks, Loki had informed her that Thor would usually make his battle on Jotunheim no matter what Loki did or did not say. As she readied herself for the day, Darcy started planning what she could do to minimise the casualties of Thor's anger.  
  
\---  
  
Jotunheim was cold. Really really cold. Darcy was so glad that she was not human right now, because a human would have frozen solid in the first breath of this dark and icy world. Even then, she thought that Thor and the Warriors Three were madmen, walking into this place without bothering to put on even a few extra layers.  
  
Darcy exchanged a glance with Sif, whom she had deemed to be the only even remotely sane one in this group. Amongst other things, the lady warrior was wearing something warm, a furred coat that she hadn't had on earlier in the days proceedings. This iteration of them didn't have quite the same antagonistic relationship that Darcy understood Sif to usually have with Loki. Darcy chalked it up to their both being women who had struck out against the norm of Asgardian society, Sif by her decision to be a true warrior, and Darcy by her in-loop refusal to sit back and be a passive princess. That they both felt a similar type of exasperation when dealing with their thick headed male friends only made it easier to empathise with each other.  
  
\---  
  
Loki had been right. It didn't seem to matter what she said, both Thor and the Warriors Three were itching for a chance for a fight, and the Jotun seemed more than happy to oblige.  
  
Darcy wasn't sure how much of the magical abilities that she had right now would follow her through to the next loop, but for now she was quite happily making use of the full range of power she had access to. She had to admit, she was having fun, despite the danger of the situation. Of course, after you've died a certain number of loops, she'd found death didn't hold quite the same fear any more.

And then one of the Jotun warriors grabbed her and everything went to hell. The colour blue rippled up her skin, the shade that of deep, thick ice. She had known that Loki was born Jotun, she had even seen his Jotun form a time or two, but that had not prepared her for seeing the blue tones creeping up her own skin as the warrior continued to hold her. The next moment she was ducking, hearing the distinctive sound of Mjolnir coming through the air. Her arm was wrenched sideways as the Warrior who had been holding her was suddenly gone, beaten away by her brother's weapon.

\---

Loki had told her that, more than anything, it had been the moment when he first held the Casket of Ancient Winters in his hands that his mind had lost what grip it had left on sanity and the darker feelings which had festered for millennia were finally able to take complete control of him. While going crazy was not something Darcy had to worry about, at least, not going crazy because of this in any case, her innate sense of curiosity wouldn't let her rest until she had held the artifact and seen for herself the effect it would have upon her.

"Darcy" Odin's voice filled the treasure room, the All-father sounding exhausted and pained. Darcy was certain that he must be expecting something along the lines of what the Unawake Loki normally went through. So she took a chance to enjoy the look of surprise on the king's face as she treated him to a wide grin upon a Jotun-blue face. "This is so cool!"

\---------------  
3.02 - Panthergard

Darcy had woken up in some weird places since day she had come to grips with the fact that time was repeating for her. This however was the first time that she had woken up as something other than human (or at least humanoid, given she had been Aesir a couple of times). This time though, she was very definitely not human. And she was loving it. It had been new instincts rather than unfamiliar memories which she'd had to assimilate this time. Really it was rather surprising how similar to normal her life had been given how different the world was. It was amazing how easy it was to accept the existence of Darcy Panthergard, someone who was so thoroughly not human that, despite being a shapeshifter with a human alternate form, she was unable to take a completely human form prior to awakening. She thought perhaps she would keep that, kitty ears and a tail were an adorable thought, and it wasn't like she appeared to be anywhere near a major center of human population.

She yawned and stretched, paws kneading the warmth earth beneath her. This was nice. She could just take a vacation, relax and enjoy life out here in the wild country, where the only thing she had to worry about was making sure that Jane Owlgard was remembering to eat the meals that Darcy caught and brought home for the other Terra Indigene woman. She didn't think there was a Thor running around to be causing an incident this time around, in part because this Jane was an astronomer, not a crazy physicist. Really, if taking care of Jane was what she paid for an otherwise quite loop in which to just relax and pursue her own interests for a bit? It would be well worth the price. Especially since she'd have taken care of Jane anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3.01 - Darcy and Loki swap places. - 'Meanwhile Loki was staring at Jane and trying to work out how Darcy gets her to eat and sleep.'  
> 3.02 - Anne Bishop's 'Written in Red' series. An early and rather important loop in Darcy's development, where she is a Terra Indigene Panther (Cougar).


	4. Lifetimes

4.01 - Childhood

"Well" Darcy said to herself as she looked down at her latest body "This is certainly different". She had Awoken as other people, other creatures, on other planets, and years into the past. Sometimes even as young as she was now. This time was different though. Mainly because her loop-memories told her that everyone else was here too. She had no idea if they were awake or not, but she already had plans to save her allowance and buy a camera as soon as possible. She just had to get photos of all of this.

\---------------  
4.02 - Phil

"Ms Lewis" Agent Coulson's voice was bland, but experience with him had Darcy catching the strain in his tone. "If you could come with me" It was an interesting departure from the usual confrontation which occurred just after the seizure of Jane's things. Nothing had seemed different about this loop to the usual course of events, so Darcy was curious about why Phil was singling her out right at the start.

Darcy followed Coulson to one of the half dozen unmarked black cars which the Agents had brought with them. She waved Jane back when the woman started towards her, mouthing that she would be fine. Of all Coulson's data stealing i-pod thieving ways, he was a surprisingly good person Even if he didn't know her yet, she knew he wouldn't let her come to harm.

"How did you know we were coming Miss Lewis?" "What makes you think I knew you and your shadowy secret government agency were coming?"

Phil didn't say a word in response, just looked at her with the same bland expression, the one which less than an handful of people on all of earth would be able to see the strain in. Darcy glanced at his hands, seeing the way his fingers curled around the steering-wheel, a securing of his grip upon the plastic which also spoke of stress.

"Did you know I would be waiting?" Darcy asked quietly. There was a flicker of Phil's eyes-lids, a sign of surprise before he said "Yes".

Darcy nodded. "There's a diner just up the road. Pull in and you can buy me a soda and I'll tell you a story about the Universe and the day it broke"

\---------------  
4.03 - Guardians of the Galaxy

Awakening on a spaceship was an unusual place to be starting out. Awakening with a hang-over was also unusual. The re-set of a loop usually also ended the effects of any spells, drugs or other such things. Lifting a hand, Darcy touched her head, and felt a sting of pain when her gently seeking fingertips reached her temple. "Okay, so, not a hangover" If she was right about having a bruise there, she was thinking she might have woken up concussed.

"Rise and Shine Ladybird!" An overly cheerful voice called out to her. "Another day, another planet" "Shut up Peter" The words were automatic, coming from the loop-memories which were only now starting to re-surface. Her name was Darcy Quill, twin sister to Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord. Idly she wondered if she could convince him not to use that name, and immediately discarded the idea, apparently she'd been trying for years and had yet to succeed. Then she wondered just how much he would freak-out if she pulled out her i-pod, given every memory she had of him involved an old tape player.

\---------------  
4.04 - Bond

Darcy's breath caught in her throat as she watched the eggs. They were massive, the smallest of them reaching up past her knee and the biggest ones almost to her shoulder. She'd been Awake for a week now, and this was the first time she'd seen the eggs which she had apparently spent her whole life dreaming of. And why wouldn't she have? These were, after all, dragon eggs. Their mother was a massive creature, gleaming golden-yellow in colour, who hovered over the rocking shells, watching everyone with eyes that had gone red-orange in agitation.

"Remember ladies, there's a queen egg on the sands, so keep your eyes on her. I don't want to see anyone getting hurt because you were silly enough not to watch where the hatchlings are going. Queens more than any other will bowl people over and walk on them to get to the person they want" A tall man with bright green eyes and dark hair interrupted by a splash of scarred white was talking, voice pitched to be heard over the loud humming sound which seemed to be coming from the adult dragons.

Darcy moved with the crowd, following the other girls to a space on the sands which was near to the queen and the egg which contained her precious true-born daughter. Her eyes though kept straying back to the main clutch. Her memories and what she had seen these past few days said that girls could impress to greens and blues, though it was uncommon for that to happen. Still, given what she knew of the gold dragons, she didn't think one would be interested in her. If she was honest, she wasn't sure about this. When she spoke to the riders, asked about what it was like to impress to a dragon, they all said the same thing, that it was as though you had found a part of yourself that you did not know you were missing, another part of the same soul.

The eggs cracked slowly, wobbly clumsy hatchlings finding their way onto the sands. Delicate little greens and rangy blues, chubby browns and one gleaming dirty-bronze. They found their riders, incandescent joy filling the faces of the new riders as they called out the name of their dragon.

A crack snaked down the side of the gold marked shell and everything fell silent. A hush had fallen over the occupants of the massive echoing cavern as they all awaited the moment when the new queen would make her appearance. With what seemed to be agonising slowness, the shell lost it's structure, falling to pieces around a pale almost white-gold queen.

The queen took slow and careful steps forward, a little wobbly but seeming to have her feet under her well enough to walk without immediately falling over. Her head swung from side to side, looking over the girls. She turned, looking towards Darcy, and the woman felt her breath catch once more.

A low growling hiss of sound broke the silence as a little sandy coloured brown stepped in front of Darcy. _Mine_ A feminine voice announced. _Go find your own_ The queen growled at the brown but turned away, finding a rider in a pretty girl with dark hair and lively green eyes.

The brown turned to Darcy. _I am Briath_

In that moment, everything changed. Because she understood now what the riders had meant and it was wonderful, and at the same time, terrible, because she couldn't take Briath with her when her time here ended.

 _Silly_ The dragon looked up at her _It doesn't matter where you go, I'll always be with you_

"I don't think that's how it works" Darcy said, but she wiped her eyes and stood up "Come on, let's get you fed" There would be time enough for thinking of the future later, when Briath was asleep.

\---------------  
4.05 - Soul

"Somehow, I am completely unsurprised" Darcy looked down at the massive cat which was draped across the bottom of her bed. "Well of course not" The feline said with a long yawn "How could we possible be anything else." With a huff, Darcy reached out to her daemon, and the cat bumped her head under Darcy's hand, angling so that the woman could scratch behind her ears. "Well, at least we know one thing. When they said meeting your dragon was like finding another part of yourself, apparently they weren't kidding" Briath made a short huffing sound and started to purr.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4.02 - Phil's introduction to Looping  
> 4.03 - And despite Darcy's presence everything happened pretty much exactly the same. (some friends and I had a conversation post seeing GotG about how you could replace Peter with Darcy and it would still be pretty much the same movie. Also, I want a Groot)  
> 4.04 - Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern. Briath is a mutant, a female brown, because there is no mid-ranked female in Canon and I wanted to stick to the original colours in this one. Also, a minor camo from J'ack of Green Dianath and Tymorria and her Gold Ankaath, both roleplay characters of mine.  
> 4.05 - His Dark Materials/Golden Compass. Briath is, of course, a Mountain Lion.


	5. Chapter 5

5.01 - Hairdresser

Working at 'Thor's' was an unusual experience for Darcy. Of all the things she had done in her life, this was completely new to her. For someone who lived as Darcy did, after so many years of experiencing the same thing over and over again, any new experience was something to be treasured. While things rarely repeated the same way twice for her, simply because her baseline life was just that chaotic, the major events were almost always the same unless she deliberately meddled. So her life in this loop was something Darcy threw herself into wholeheartedly.

The jingle of the bell above the salon door alerted Darcy to the arrival of a customer. Looking up from her magazine, a bright smile spread across her face. "Steve!" She bounced out of her chair to greet the tall blond, one of their most regular customers. "You here for your usual?" She eyed the man "You haven't been by in a while, getting a bit shaggy there my friend." Steve smiled "Not this time Ma'am". Darcy tutted "Steve, what have I said about calling me that" "Sorry ma'am... Darcy" He frowned and looked behind himself. "Excuse me a moment" He ducked out the door again.

When he came back in, he was dragging behind him someone who was a familiar face to Darcy, but who had hadn't yet seen in this life. "Well hello tall dark and broody" Darcy fanned herself in a mock swoon "Look at that hair! Should I call Thor in? He's not due till three, but for hair like that, he'll come in early." Barnes stood there looking stunned, dark rimmed eyes blinking in confusion. "Thor owns this place" Darcy told him, taking pity on the poor man, who clearly didn't know what was going on. "He's got a thing for hair. I think he gets it from his mom, you should see Frigga, she always has the best hair-do. Anyway, Thor took this place over from his dad a couple of years ago, changed the name but it's still pretty much the same place. Technically his brother, Loki, is the head stylist here, but Thor likes to keep his skills sharp. And your hair, that is the type of thing a stylist dreams of."

Steve had joined in the confused look now, which was fair enough. To the eyes of the average person, Bucky's hair would be nothing more than an irredeemable mess. Full of tangles and knots, split ends and frayed middles. Reaching down below his shoulders in some places and to just past his jaw in others. But it was a challenge, and that was something the folks at the salon relished. No matter how things change, somethings always remained the same.

\-----------  
5.02 - Explanations

Darcy awoke on a cold and lifeless plane. Barren grey rock stretched out to greet a slightly lighter grey sky. There was nothing around her.

"Hello Darcy" The sudden voice made Darcy twitch, spinning around to face the figure that hadn't been there a moment ago, her hands crackling with magic at the perceived threat. "There's no need for that" The feminine voice said, gesturing to Darcy's sparking grip. Slightly embarrassed, Darcy let the magic slip away. Something about this place had her on edge but that was no excuse. Clearly she needed to have lessons on control with Loki next time she saw him. "please, sit" A flat rock appeared from nowhere, the figure sitting and patting the space beside them. Cautiously, Darcy settled on the stone.

"I am Hel Lokidottir." The young woman introduced herself, pulling the hood away from her head to reveal herself. Darcy gasped and the woman flinched. "Loki described you, but he did not do you justice" She told Hel, whose expression went from resigned to flattered. She really was very pretty in Darcy's opinion. Where the myths of her called her 'half-living, half-dead', what Darcy saw was a girl who was half-aesir, half-jotun, split down the middle. One side of her had pale skin, blue eyes and golden hair. The other side of her had blue skin, with faint swirling marks, bright red eyes and hair as dark as her fathers.

"Why am I here?" Darcy asked. "You are here because I am your guide" Hel said. Darcy cocked her head and made a 'go on' gesture. "You know now that your world is repeating itself, the same events happening over and over." Darcy nodded. "You are our anchor" Hel continued "The center point around which this looping pattern occurs."

With a wave of Hel's hands, an image of a great tree appeared before them. Darcy recognized it as the concept of Yggdrasil, the world tree. Though it was not always a concept. Sometimes the world tree was quite literal in it's existence. "You know Yggdrasil, The World Tree" Hel said "But the Yggdrasil you know is but a shadow of the true Yggdrasil. The true Yggdrasil is the system from which your universe sprouts, as well as many other universes. Any world you can imagine, it grows somewhere within Yggdrasil's system." With another gesture, several of the branches cracked and broke from the image of the tree, a great scar now climbing it's side. "Some time ago, Yggdrasil was damaged. All the multiverse was stopped as the tenders of the tree worked to repair the damage. Slowly the the branches were reopened, each universe set to a kind of 'safe-mode', the events within looping back to a set time period when each one reached the end of it's designated run time. Within this loops one person was chosen to be awake and aware of what was happening, to anchor the events of the loop. In this world, that person was you. From you, others may begin to loop, and several have now. But as the anchor, you are the only one who will always loop and the loops will always end when you die, should you die before the reset time."

"But what about you? I don't know you, so I doubt your awareness of this stuff is a result of me" Darcy said. "No, you are right" Hel said "As I said, I am your guide. I was chosen by those who tend the main trunk of Yggdrasil to be the one to tend to this branch, to care for it until the tree itself is healed enough to begin to bring the multiverse back to normal. I agreed, on the condition that, after you, Loki be the next to awaken to the loops." Hel kicked her heels against the rock, looking very young in that moment "He has done many wrong things in the baseline of this world. I wished for him to have a chance to become more than what he was." Darcy smiled at this "He has" She said softly. Loki had become a good friend to her over their many years.

\-----------  
5.03 - My Little Pony

Waking up as something non-human? Not too unusual. Being a cat? Surprisingly common place. Being part cat, part bird? More unusual, but still not really weird. Waking up surrounded by ponies in a wide variety of rather vivid colours, all of them speaking perfectly understandable english? That was enough to trip even Darcy's weird-o-meter.

"Hey there" A bright blue blur resolved itself into a cyan pegasus with a bright rainbow colored mane and tail. "You must be new here." The mare? was it a mare? it certainly sounded female but Darcy knew better than to judge by that alone, said. "Yup" Darcy replied, wriggling her jaw at the odd sensation of speaking through a beak. "How did you know?" The mare grinned in response "Well, partly its the way you're looking around at us all, partly is the way you keep wiggling your beak, like your not used to having one... but mostly its because this is around the time my friend Gilda should be showing up, and instead your here"

Darcy stared at the pegasus, who stared back. "Whooo boy" The pony said "Is this your first fused loop?" "You mean you're looping?" "Yep" The mare looked at her for a long moment "Right, not your first fused loop, but clearly this is your first time encountering loopers outside your universe, yeah?" Darcy nodded slowly, a little overwhelmed by her first meeting with loopers who weren't the people she had come to know so well and cherish so greatly over her years. "right, well, firstly, Pinkie Pie is going to throw you a party. She does that for everyone. And secondly, I'm going to take you to Twilight, 'cause she's way better at this egg-head stuff than I am"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5.01 - This is Zyrieen's fault. She mentioned wanting a Hairdresser AU and this is what happened. We may see more of this loop, because it was quite fun to write.  
> 5.02 - Darcy finally gets her explanation as to why things are happening  
> 5.03 - My Little Pony, Generation 4. Darcy is a griffon.


	6. The Master of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a crack develops in the branch which supports Harry Potter's universe, several of their loopers are shunted into Darcy's universe to keep them safe while the damage is repaired.

6.01 - The Child  
Darcy groaned as she woke, her hand automatically reaching to hit her alarm clock. But it wasn't her clock which had woken her today. It was the crying, a high pitched wail of sound which Darcy had learned to associate with unhappy children. Specifically, very small children. Covering a yawn with her hand, Darcy stumbled to the door of the small apartment she was renting on the edge of town. Jane only had the one trailer, and the Campervan of Science! (and yes the capitals were definitely necessary when it came to the van), which was big enough for the boss-lady, but not really for Darcy as well. Darcy liked her creature comforts, like having space enough to stretch out without hitting the cupboards.

Opening the door, it took several long moments for Darcy to recognize what she was seeing. A basket, with a squalling child wrapped up in a blanket. "Really? Do people actually do that?" She said, even as she reached out to pick up the squalling infant. "Hey now, it's alright, Darcy's got yah" She spoke in a soothing tone as she gently bounced the child, holding it against her shoulder. "What's this?" There was a note tucked into the weave of the basket, and really, who used woven baskets for kids any more?

_Darcy_

_Look after him_

_~Hel Lokidottir_

"Well hell" Darcy said as she tucked the note into her pocket "I guess a bit more literally than usual this time" She pulled the quietening child back a touch so she could look at his. Black haired and green eyed, Darcy judged him to be about a year old. "Fuck" It was the scar on his forehead which had Darcy swearing. Even if she'd never been to that universe, that distinctive marking was well known. Harry Potter was a well known children's novel in her universe, and she knew with that scar exactly who she was holding. "Hel had better have a damned good explanation for this when I see her next" Darcy muttered, grabbing the basket with one hand and dragging it inside before fumbling to close the door one handed.

"I don't suppose you're eating solids yet?" She asked the baby, who blinked up at her. "Right, of course you're not going to talk to me yet. You're genuinely a baby right now." Still holding the child, she rummaged through her fridge to find the milk. Next was a pot, set on her tiny stove to heat the milk up. "Fuck" She didn't have a bottle. She wondered if it would be cheating to magic one up. Harry started to sniffle and Darcy decided that she didn't care. She could always go and buy real ones tomorrow. Power pooled at her fingertips as she called upon creation magics to form a bottle. She was just glad that she didn't have to magic up milk as well. She didn't know any child-care spells and she wasn't sure what magically conjured milk might do to a human baby. For that matter, she wasn't sure what magically conjured milk might do to a human adult.

"God, I hope Tony's awake this loop. I could really use him and Jarvis to help me keep you" The last thing she needed was Child Services taking Harry away from her. Actually, she was really really glad that Jane was Awake. As cool as un-awake Jane was, Darcy would not have been looking forward to trying to explain her custody of random small child to the woman.

Giving the baby his bottle, Darcy looked down at him. "Well, I suppose I can't be any worse than the Dursley's were" She didn't have much experience with actually raising a child, but it couldn't be too hard, right?

\--------------------  
6.02 - The Seer

At five, Harry seemed to Darcy almost as though he had always been a part of this particular loop. He was a happy child, absorbing all the love and affection which he could get. Which in Avenger's Tower was quite a bit. Awake or not, the Avengers as a whole seemed to love children. Uncle Tony was constantly providing new things for him to play with, claiming that he was the test subject for new ranges of toys for Stark Industries to begin making, but everyone knew that Tony just liked making things for Harry to play with. Auntie Pepper kept Tony under control, but was known to slip Harry gifts from the travels abroad which were required of her as the CEO of Stark Industries. Uncle Thor told the best stories, and had insisted that Harry must learn traditional Aesir skills such as horse riding and armed combat. Aunt Natasha taught him unarmed combat and flawless Russian, though Darcy had insisted that lessons on manipulating the ordinary folks waited until he was older. Uncle Clint was a big kid himself, and never let on that teaching him things like juggling was just a preparation for learning to throw knives and that hide and seek was a survival skills lesson. Uncle Phil was reading and writing, setting him up to learn how to manipulate paperwork and regulations.

Aunt Jane and Uncle Bruce didn't have as much to teach Harry, but they were always there with a hug if he needed it and baby-sitting if Darcy was needed for something. Uncle Loki however had been vital, and of all the people in this loop, he had been the one Darcy was most glad to have Awake. Because by the age of five, Harry was starting to manifest magic, and while Darcy was an able practitioner herself these days, the only person better at what she knew than Loki, was his mother, Frigga.

Living in Stark Tower was simple, inexpensive (since she didn't pay rent and Tony insisted on providing for everyone), and extremely secure, between the guards and various security measures and the monitoring from the ever reliable Jarvis himself. So, while a knocking on Darcy's door at five in the morning was not unusual, the little girl that Darcy found standing in front of her when she opened the door, was. She was a skinny waif of a child, with dirty blond hair and grey eyes so pale that Darcy might have called them silver.

"Hello" The child spoke clearly, enunciating in a manner which Darcy would have associated with a lass several year older than the girl, who seemed about four. "I'm Luna. May I come in?" Watching the girl in confusion Darcy gave the only answer she could think of "Of course" She stepped aside, giving the ceiling a desperate glance mouthing _'Get Bruce'_ to Jarvis while setting off a magical 'ping' which would alert Loki that he was needed. Bruce would be the least likely of the avengers to freak out over the appearance of yet another small child, not to mention the one best qualified to give her a check up and make sure she was healthy. And Loki would be the one best able to help with the fact that she was pretty sure that she a four year old Luna Lovegood sitting across her kitchen bench drinking the glass of milk which Darcy had automatically gotten for her.

"How did you get here?" Darcy asked. "I don't know" The girl said in a dreamy tone "One moment I was not here and the next I was. It was as though I had just closed my eyes and Awakened in this place" Darcy, recognizing the slight question in her tone and emphasis on the word 'awakened' knew that she was dealing with a looper. However, before she could say anything, Harry wandered out of his room, rubbing his eyes and yawning, dragging along the stuffed black dog that Darcy had gotten for him when he had first been given to her. "Mama I.." The boy trailed off, staring at their visitor. "Luna!" He cried out, flinging himself at the girl. "Hello Harry" Luna said, patting the dark hair of the boy who was clinging to her.

A slight frown creased Darcy's brow as she tried to work out if her son was Awake, and if so, how long had he been. Then it smoothed away as Darcy resolved to simply ask. "I think some introductions are in order" She said "I'm Darcy Lewis, Anchor, Mage and currently Harry's mother." "Luna Lovegood" The girl said said in return "Anchor, Witch and very hungry. Can we have something to eat before your friends get here?"

"A little late for that" Loki said as he slipped through the door "And you young one have some explaining to do" He directed a disapproving look at Harry, who seemed to wilt under the stare. "I'm sorry" He said softly "I didn't know if any of you were loopers or not and... I was enjoying getting to be a kid with a normal life... well, a sort of normal life anyway." Darcy moved around the table, reaching out to sweep the boy into a hug, and by extension hugged Luna as well, since Harry hadn't yet let go of her. "I'm sorry Harry, that's partly my fault. Since I got you as a baby and you didn't act any differently to how a normal baby would, I had assumed you weren't Awake and I tried to keep as much of the looping weirdness away from you. I thought you deserved as happy a life as I could give you, even if you wouldn't remember it."

"I didn't" Harry replied "Not until recently anyway. The memories came about when my magic did." He spoke as a young adult now, no longer pretending to be the child which his current physical age said he should be. Darcy looked at him, an adult mind in a child's body, trying and failing to contain a fear. "Don't worry Harry, you can stay" Darcy said and then looked at the girl next to him "You too Luna." Darcy didn't think much of whomever had been caring for the girl until now. She looked far to thin to Darcy's way of thinking, and that reminded her that the girl had asked for something to eat.

Clattering about the in the kitchen, Darcy set to making sandwiches, drafting Harry and both her guests into the task when it looked like Loki was going to settle into questioning the children. While she knew that, as loopers, both were mentally adults, it was hard to think of them as anything other than children when they looked like that, and especially difficult with Harry, given she had raised him from a baby.

"Darcy?" Bruce peered hesitantly around the door-frame, looking at the quartet. "Oh good, you're just in time for lunch" Darcy swept Bruce up into her wake, sitting the scientist down and setting a sandwich before him. "Eat up" She commanded and Bruce obediently lifted his sandwich. "Why did you have Jarvis call me?" He asked after his first bite. "This is Luna" Darcy indicated the girl in question, who blinked at Bruce. "She'll be staying with Harry and me. I need you to give her a check up." "Uhh" Bruce opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again when he saw the look on Darcy's face. He had learned not to argue when she had that look.

\--------------------  
6.03 - The Dog

"Miss Darcy, there is a man at the front desk demanding to speak with young master Harry" Jarvis' voice interrupted what had been a rousing sing-along to some truly whacked out eighties bands. The statement brought a frown to Darcy's face. For the sake of security Harry and Luna were both homeschooled, and little of their existence was known to earth authorities. When they left the tower, it tended to be to visit Asgard or a field-trip to one of the other nine realms. Though there was the occasional visit to countries other than America. T'challa had proven quite fond of them.

"What does he look like?" She asked and Jarvis brought up the feed from one of the security cameras in the lobby. The man was tall, pale skinned with shaggy black hair and grey eyes. He was gesturing wildly, clearly yelling at the woman who manned the counter, though Jarvis had mercifully not included the audio. "That's real time?" Darcy asked and Jarvis replied "Yes Miss Darcy". Reaching out, Darcy tapped the image and Jarvis shifted to a different camera with another angle. Martha, the woman on the desk today, was a magnificent woman who seemed completely unimpressed with the argumentative man.

"Harry" Darcy called to her boy. "What is it Mom?" He asked. Though Darcy had told him that he didn't need to call her that, after she had learned that he was awake and the boy no-longer hiding that he was not a normal six year old. Harry however had continued to call her by the term, finding it the easiest way to express the affection which had grown between them since the revelation and his appreciation for the way she had taken care of him. "Come here and tell me if you know this man" She gestured the boy over to her side. 

The moment he saw the man, who was still arguing vehemently with Martha on the desk, Harry rocked back on his heels and Darcy automatically reached out to steady him. "Sirius" Harry said softly "That's Sirius"

"Jarvis" Darcy said "Send him up" She had heard plenty of tales from Harry and Luna about Sirius and all the things he had done over the course of their loops. "And call for Luna please" Her girl was supposed to be in the gym with Natasha right now, but she should get here before Sirius did.

With both her children inside (and Darcy couldn't help but think of them as her children, given that she was in many ways raising them, despite their more adult minds), Darcy waited for Jarvis to let Sirius reach her floor. When the knocking came at the door, Darcy took a moment to straighten herself out before opening it. Sirius' mouth was open, but Darcy started talking before he could say a word "Come on in. You're Sirius Black, right? Well, I suppose that might not be your name at the moment, but that's who you are, right? I'm Darcy Lewis. Jarvis is under the impression that you're here looking for my son, Harry"

"He's not your son. He's my godson and I'm here to take him back" Sirius growled. "Whoa, down boy" Darcy said, waving a hand at him. "Harry is totally my son, I've been raising him since he was a baby. And I've been raising Luna too, so she is totally my daughter... and this is your first time outside of your own loop isn't it. No wonder your confused. Sit down and I'll put some tea on and I'll explain what's going on and how Harry is totally mine even though he's still Lily and James's. The kids are busy tossing their rooms to get good clothes on, well Harry's tossing his room, Luna's probably already changed and is now watching him. Anyway, we've probably got a little while so I'll see what explanations we can get through before Harry's finally gotten himself ready."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Luna Lovegood is the Anchor for the Potter-verse loops. Given Harry does kinda die at the end of Canon (even if he does come back right afterwards) and the number of times he stayed alive through sheer luck and chance, it didn't make sense to me for Harry to be the chosen anchor, since they need someone who stays relatively safe and sane throughout the course of the baseline events. And while I love Harry, I don't think he qualifies for that, while Luna gets into less actually life threatening danger and I see her as being one of the least likely people in the books to go into a potential homicidal type of insanity.


	7. Expansions

7.01 - Secret Identity

In the end, whether or not a hero got to keep a secret identity of not always seemed to boil down to Tony and what he chose to do as Iron Man. If he made his public announcement that 'I am Ironman', then the world had an expectation that it was to know the identity of every hero who chose to put on the costume and fight the forces of those less inclined towards good. If he kept it to himself, followed the script and played out the story that Ironman was someone else, then the Public, while still nosy, was less inclined to believe that it was entitled to know.

Fortunately for the life Darcy had found herself thrown into, this time around Tony had followed Phil's plan and then had continued to perpetuate the myth of Ironman being a bodyguard. It made being part of the 'spandex set' so much easier when she could keep it separated from her home life. Unfortunately, she had woken up later than normal, and found that she had been maintaining her secret identity not only with regards to the world at large, but with Jane, Phil and the rest of the crew as well. Which meant it was going to be a long and awkward loop if she decided to stick to the story-line and see where it went. Sometimes that could be fun, testing herself against the baseline versions of her friends, seeing how long she could keep the charade going before one of them twigged to the fact that she wasn't what they thought she was. Darcy found it to be a good gauge of where she was at, how well she could stand up against the many and varied talents of the Avengers.

She reflected, as she searched for a discreet place to switch into her costume so she could partake in the currently ongoing battle, that there was an annoying lack of such places in this loop. Finding one, she slipped into it and hurriedly began to strip. A noise behind her made her turn and she found herself nose to nose with a fiercely blushing Peter Parker, half way into his own costumed superhero outfit.

"Well.... This is awkward"

\---------------

7.02 - Alicornification

Visiting Equestria had become a fairly common fused loop for Darcy as far as these things went. She suspected that Hel might have put in a word to the admins, because whenever the constantly rotating schedule of heroism and villainy started to wear on her, she found herself dumped in among the brightly coloured ponies. Which was not to say that Equestria didn't have it's problems, but they were different problems, which the loopers there had little problem dealing with and which weren't usually lethal even if they let things play out without interference.

Usually Darcy was a griffon for these loops, following her now standard shift to as feline a form as possible. She'd asked Hel about that once, why she always seemed to become a cat when she wasn't a human. The response had been long and scientific but had basically boiled down to that one loop she had spent as a Thaisian Terra-ingene mountain lion having had such an impact on her that her soul was as much feline as human these day, and thus defaulted to as cat like a shape as it could get when ever human wasn't an option (and occasionally when it was).

This time though she was a pony, a dark coated mare with a cutiemark which looked at first glance like a fairly standard image of an atom. Then you looked closer and realized that the rings were made up on lines of letter-symbols of a dozen different languages and that the golden center of the 'atom' had an outline of the world tree within it. Signifying her talents for languages of all kinds and her status as the anchor of a universe with a shadow-yggdrasil and it's nine realms of legend.

Last time she had looped into Equestria, she had asked Twilight if the mare had ever had anyone who wasn't a native looper ascend to alicornhood. The answered had been a surprised look, followed by great deal of thought and then a 'no'. And thus was their plan hatched.

At this point a fair number of Equestrian loopers had an alicorn form of their own, and they knew what was needed to trigger one. So when Darcy had volunteered to be the subject of the experiment, Twilight had immediately set about preparations for the day when they both looped in as Awake and Darcy was a pony rather than her usual griffon. Darcy even already had the perfect focusing item, the necklace which held her Green blood-jewel. She had been a little nervous about letting Twilight experiment on it, since those things were a soul-bonded artifact, but Twilight had said that the very fact of that bonding was why they were suitable as the focusing object for the potential transformation.  
\---  
"So, what exactly is your special talent anyway?" Twilight asked as she led Darcy into the tree-house library which was the unicorn's home, "Do you know yet?". Darcy huffed, turning her head to stare at her flank, "I'm not one hundred percent certain, but I'm going to say it's the same thing I'm usually good at. Science Wrangling". Twilight paused, blinking, "Science Wrangling?" She asked. "Well, it's more _Scientist_ wrangling, but yeh. Pretty much" Darcy smiled "Doesn't seem to matter how many times someone else loops into my place, I'm still the only person who can reliably get Jane to eat and sleep, and to be able to translate her ramblings into stuff other people can understand."

Twlight hummed, tapping her hoof against her chin as she thought. Then a wide grin spread over her face. "I know exactly what to do". Of course, it wouldn't be easy. Something like this never was. 

With a flash of purple, the world around the changed, as Darcy found herself teleported into a new location. Right into a mound of paperwork. "What?" She stumbled as she righted herself, staring around at the chaos of the massive room. Twilight grinned at her. "You get to be my assistant this loop!" The manic grin on the purple unicorn's face had Darcy taking a step back, wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into.

\-----------------  
7.03 - Radio

A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while our local scientist tries to chase them down.

Welcome to Puente Antiguo.

\-----------------  
7.04 - Age of Ultron

The first few times, Darcy had thought she was simply experiencing a weird variant. But then it kept happening. Over and over again. Now, given she was trapped in a time loop, it should have been expected that things would repeat, but Darcy hadn't been expecting this. This was new. This was different. This, she did not like, not at all.

Hel had warned her that this might happen. In truth, she had said outright that this would happen. The eternally youthful goddess however hadn't been able to specify a time-frame, nor what exactly would happen. Like everything in the greater multiverse, Darcy's timeline was damaged. Not every bit of damage to her own world had been fixed yet, but she had been, activated, for lack of a better word, as the anchor to ensure that what had been stabilized would be kept stable. As more of her baseline universe was fixed, it would be linked into the time she already supported, and thus the timeline, and the average length of the loops, would increase in size.

Right now though, that fact, that more of her world had been repaired and that this was a good thing, was going unnoticed in favour of _not_ strangling Tony. It was, after all, his damn fault.

Unfortunately, she had yet to work out a way to stop the whole damned thing which didn't involve a) outing herself as looper well before the event, and having to explain it all to everyone who wasn't awake at the time (and that plan only worked half the time anyway), b) leaving Pietro and Wanda in Stucker's clutches and leaving Vision unborn, or c) actually strangling Tony and earning herself a punishment loop. None of which was a particularly appealing end result.

Right now, she was trying to find a way to make sure they all lived through the event without her needing to get directly involved, since she was pretty good at derailing the whole damned thing, but so far not indirectly. Also, on not strangling Barton for not telling her about Laura. Though she could kind of see why he hadn't. Clint had worked damned hard to keep her out of events in the baseline, and adding the looping weirdness to it all wouldn't have been fair. And it did explain why Barton tended to stick to pre-awakening relationships only when the loops had paired him with Natasha. Nat had known about Laura and, looking back, Darcy could see now that the pair had just been playing along with what had been expected of them.

"So, tell me again why we're doing this?" Loki asked as he crouched next to Darcy, both of them staring out at the torn ruins of the city. Ruins which were getting more torn up and destroyed by the moment as Ultron's many bodies battled the gathered Avengers. "Because I'm damned if I'm going to let this happen again." Silently Darcy counted down. Over the long and lonely loops since this had first begun, Darcy had learned the timing of this battle, and now, with someone else Awake for the first time since the loop had expanded, she could really do something about it all. She was glad it was Loki who was with her. He was, at this point, her oldest friend, by sheer dint of being the first person to begin looping after her, and being the most regular of her friends to join her in being Awake.

"Three... Two... One..." She whispered the words. "Now!" The Helicarrier came into view, the repaired fan driven original rather than the newer repulsion powered design which Steve had a habit of destroying when SHIELD was revealed as well hidden front for Hydra. Using the distraction of it's arrival as cover, the two loopers dove into action.

"Now Loki!" Darcy shouted as she leaped from her rooftop hiding place, shifting on the way down into her preferred large cat form, landing on one of the Ultron-bots, teeth latching into it;'s neck as she worked to rip it in two. Loki's skin bled from pale aesir into jotun blue as he threw out his hands, ice spreading out in a slick layer over the street as shards exploded outwards, spearing several bots right through.

Darcy landed, scrabbling for purchase on the slick ice. One of the bots fired at her, the blast striking her in the side and sending her flying. Landing, she went skidding along the iced over street, right off the edge of the floating section of city. As she fell, Darcy worked to clear her head. Slowly her body blurred, shifting and reforming into something that had not been seen by humans since the days when Midgard was in contact with the rest of the nine realms. A massive griffon, part feline, part bird of prey, all dangerous predator. A shrieking cry echoed out from Darcy as she beat her new wings, forcing an end to her fall and then a fast climb back to the level of the island, which was still slowly climbing higher and higher.

' _Shit_ ' Darcy swore, her words carried telepathically to her fellow looper. ' _Loki! Clint's leaving the lifeboat! Get to the church!_ ' Flicking her wings, she turned, climbing higher and higher in the air, until she was right where she needed to be. Her eyes narrowed, fixing on her target. _Three_. She beat her wings, falling into a dive as she layered shield spells around herself, drawing on the power of her blood-jewels, tapping into the powers of green and grey, layering them one over the other. _Two_. Next she called on her many loops as Thor, lightning crackling around her as she pulled on her now natural affinity for aesir weather magic, and lightning forms in particular. _One_. Finally, pulling on the equestria weather magic she'd learned from Rainbow Dash during her loops visiting the ponies, Darcy stretched out her clawed forelimbs.

There was a great boom of sound, a ring of cloud and crackling lightning which destroyed every Ultron-bot it came into contact with. And in the center of it, defying every law of physics known to human kind, and a number of those known to the other intelligent races of the nine realms, was Darcy, her body glowing with power as she struck the bots, turning swiftly strike down everything which came close to where Clint went to rescue the child. To where Peitro always died. Well not this time. This time, Darcy was going to make sure he lived, and everyone else too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 7.01 - Prompt - 'Well, This is awkward'  
> 7.02 - Darcy gets all the crazy science happening around/to her  
> 7.03 - The opening lines of a 'Welcome to Nightvale' fusion loop  
> 7.04 - I watched Age of Ultron tonight. Darcy spent the whole time swearing at Tony. And yes, Darcy did just pull off her personal weather-magic signature version of a sonic rainboom in an otherwise baseline Avengers loop.


End file.
